Check out all of NASA’s top 10 achievements in 2023, from Bennu and Psyche to Dinkinesh.

NASA has had a momentous year in 2023, accomplishing several significant milestones such as obtaining an asteroid sample and successfully launching the Psyche spacecraft. As we approach the end of the year, we have gathered a compilation of NASA’s top 10 achievements.

NASA’s Top 10 Achievements in 2023:

1. This year, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio achieved a historic milestone as the first American to spend more than a year in space, demonstrating NASA’s commitment to long-term human space exploration.

2. OSIRIS-REx successfully deposited a Bennu asteroid sample in the Utah desert, providing insights into the ancient building blocks of life on Earth

3. Psyche asteroid spacecraft launched from NASA Kennedy Space Center.

4. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew past its first target asteroid at the inner edge of the Dinkinesh asteroid belt, and the first images are now online.

5. On October 14th, there was an annular eclipse that was visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and more. NASA actively participated in the event. They launched three Black Brant IX sounding rockets to study the ionosphere, the electrically charged layer of the atmosphere.

6. NASA partnered with DARPA on Project DRACO, which aims to test a nuclear-powered rocket by 2027, demonstrating its commitment to state-of-the-art space power.

7. The James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel of space observation, marked a year of transformative science that revealed distant galaxies and solved the mysteries of the early universe. Its contributions were too numerous to list.

8. Before the end of the year, the space station crew completed 12 spacewalks to upgrade and maintain the orbiting laboratory. NASA astronauts continued to install IROSA (International Space Station Rollout Solar Arrays) to boost power generation.

9. NASA celebrated the 25th anniversary of the operation of the International Space Station this year. At the same time, it promoted the growth of the commercial space economy and partnerships for the development of commercial space stations.

10. This year, NASA also made progress on the Artemis program and worked hard to achieve the historic milestone of landing the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon. Specifically, in 2023, NASA unveiled the crew for the Artemis II mission, the first Artemis mission in which astronauts orbit the Moon and return to Earth.